Global trends in water and sediment fluxes of the world's large rivers

Li，Li1; Ni，Jinren1; Chang，Fang1; Yue，Yao2; Frolova，Natalia3; Magritsky，Dmitry3; Borthwick，Alistair G.L.4; Ciais，Philippe5; Wang，Yichu1,6; Zheng，Chunmiao7; Walling，Desmond E.8

2020-01-15

10.1016/j.scib.2019.09.012

Science Bulletin   Impact Factor & Quartile

2095-9273

2095-9281

Water and sediment transport from rivers to oceans is of primary importance in global geochemical cycle. Against the background of global change, this study examines the changes in water and sediment fluxes and their drivers for 4307 large rivers worldwide (basin area ≥1000 km) based on the longest available records. Here we find that 24% of the world's large rivers experienced significant changes in water flux and 40% in sediment flux, most notably declining trends in water and sediment fluxes in Asia's large rivers and an increasing trend in suspended sediment concentrations in the Amazon River. In particular, nine binary patterns of changes in water-sediment fluxes are interpreted in terms of climate change and human impacts. The change of precipitation is found significantly correlated to the change of water flux in 71% of the world's large rivers, while dam operation and irrigation rather control the change of sediment flux in intensively managed catchments. Globally, the annual water flux from rivers to sea of the recent years remained stable compared with the long-time average annual value, while the sediment flux has decreased by 20.8%.

Cause Co-varying pattern Global trend Large river Water and sediment

SCI ; EI

English

ESI Highly Cited Papers

Others

National Natural Science Foundation of China[51721006];National Natural Science Foundation of China[91647211];

WOS:000506873100010

20194007493253

Suspended sediments ; Sediment transport ; Catchments ; Climate change

Atmospheric Properties:443.1 ; Soil Mechanics and Foundations:483

2-s2.0-85072783484

Scopus

1.Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences,Ministry of Education,College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering,Peking University,Beijing,100871,China
2.State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science,School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering,Wuhan University,Wuhan,430072,China
3.Department of Hydrology,Faculty of Geography,Moscow State University,Moscow,119991,Russian Federation
4.Institute of Infrastructure and Environment,School of Engineering,The University of Edinburgh,Edinburgh,The King's Buildings,EH9 3JL,United Kingdom
5.Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement,IPSL,CEA,CNRS,UVSQ,Gif-sur-Yvette,91191,France
6.Beijing Innovation Center-Engineering Science & Advanced Technology,Peking University,Beijing,100871,China
7.School of Environmental Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
8.Department of Geography,College of Life and Environmental Sciences,University of Exeter,Exeter,EX4 4RJ,United Kingdom

Li，Li,Ni，Jinren,Chang，Fang,et al. Global trends in water and sediment fluxes of the world's large rivers[J]. Science Bulletin,2020,65(1):62-69.

Li，Li.,Ni，Jinren.,Chang，Fang.,Yue，Yao.,Frolova，Natalia.,...&Walling，Desmond E..(2020).Global trends in water and sediment fluxes of the world's large rivers.Science Bulletin,65(1),62-69.

Li，Li,et al."Global trends in water and sediment fluxes of the world's large rivers".Science Bulletin 65.1(2020):62-69.